LED Aesthetics: What do you really think of your color?

[evilc66]

Would this same trend also apply to the warm whites?

Yes. You can see it in the Cree datasheets. The balance between red and blue switches though, and the red peak is now the larger of the two. IMO, and Blasterman seems to agree, warm whites are too red and difficult to balance with little to no added benefit.

 

Blasterman,

 

Good point with the green overlap on the CW and NW and minimizing LED choices. So, NW:RB = 1:2 and CB:RB = 1:3, but do you think the CBs should be added on top of the mix of NW and RB or in place of a few of the RBs (or maybe in addition to the RB with an additional NW)?

Cool blues still seem to be somewhat important to bring certain colors out, but should be used sparingly. 1:3 might still be a little much, but more experimenting will be needed to see where the right balance is.

 

 

As for my own testing, I set up something over my tank, and I see some good improvements. I'm running 3 NW, 1 CW, 3 RB, 1 CB, and 1TV (all running at 500mA, fixed, with 40 degree optics). Color seems pretty balanced, and a little crisper white than with the 12K PAR38 that I replaced it with. I'm going to try and get some comparison pictures tonight after I get my water change sorted (it's in desperate need).

[Genj]

I'm going to start with these ratios:

 

5:1 RB to CB

2:1 CW to NW

8:1 Blue & White to TV

12:1 Blue & White to Cyan

 

Should I invert the CW to NW ratio?

[mrg02d]

What do you guys think about my light?

 

I have a 12 led light with 6 cree xr-e CW and 6 cree xr-e RB. Each color has its own dimmable meanwell driver.

 

I plan to swap out two CW for NW and two RB for CB. Does this sounds like a good idea, or might it be too little change? This is over a 7.5g rimless cube. (12in cube).

 

I keep the RB turned up all the way and the CW turned down such that the tank is a solid light blue. No optics. I really like the blue tanks!

 

Matt

[blasterman]

Blasterman seems to agree, warm whites are too red and difficult to balance with little to no added benefit.

 

{Giggle} Yeah...it's a bit over the top. Imagine running a tank with all Fiji Purples and Actinics, and then drinking half a fifth of Jagermeister. That kind of get's you in the ballpark as to what warm-whites and 3-4:1 RB's gets you. If I were running a LFS store and wanted to get high sales in my softie tank, I'd be running this in a heart-beat. In my living room though it got a bit annoying.

 

I still haven't got a decent CB ratio down. I added just a bit to my tank, and while the added color looks good, my tank is now too cool for my tastes. I don't have dimmers, so I need to make the adjustment by hand.

 

I'm not quite sure if we should be adding CB's in *after* we get our royal blue's set, or if CB's could be added to displace a fixed ratio of RBs initially. Been thinking about that all week.

 

I'm also curious if the low CRI NW 'ANSI' Rebels would help our issues, or hurt them. They have less amber than regular NWs which is why they are more efficient.

[dhraakoxr]

Yes. You can see it in the Cree datasheets. The balance between red and blue switches though, and the red peak is now the larger of the two. IMO, and Blasterman seems to agree, warm whites are too red and difficult to balance with little to no added benefit.

 

 

Cool blues still seem to be somewhat important to bring certain colors out, but should be used sparingly. 1:3 might still be a little much, but more experimenting will be needed to see where the right balance is.

 

 

As for my own testing, I set up something over my tank, and I see some good improvements. I'm running 3 NW, 1 CW, 3 RB, 1 CB, and 1TV (all running at 500mA, fixed, with 40 degree optics). Color seems pretty balanced, and a little crisper white than with the 12K PAR38 that I replaced it with. I'm going to try and get some comparison pictures tonight after I get my water change sorted (it's in desperate need).

 

Hey Evil, I don't know if you remember my build or not but I've been running 5 CBs ad 5 RBs and 5CW since the beginning and was looking to change a few things in light of all this info.

 

Should I replace two CBs with two greens (since cyan is gone) and 2 CW with 2NW? Do you think there is a point in this? I wouldn't mind doing it just to experiment. I just got a JBJ28 and will be swapping my BC14 setup into this tank and am excited to experiment with the added depth of the tank. I've always had issues with green SPS having green tissue colour but blue/red SPS is awesome with the setup. I had to dial my LEDs down to like 20 percent of their capabilities to get what I currently have.

[evilc66]

Neutral whites will have the biggest impact, with the least overall issues. It will be a pretty straight forward swap with the cool whites without much adjustment in other areas. I would avoid green LEDs though. Much like red, they can saturate really quickly, and should always be run on a seperate dimmable circuit to adjust to the desired levels. If you are really looking for cyan (which will offer much better results than green), then go with Luxeon Rebels. Considering that you are running cool blue already, I'd skip the cyans for the time being.

[beeker]

I just put some new pics of my tank up running 20 PAR38's

 

4 60 optic PAR38's with 4 cool blue/1 neutral white per bulb

4 60 optic PAR38's with All royal blue

8 40 optic 12k PAR38's

4 40 optic 20k PAR38's

 

check it out, i'm still working on a few sps's pieces color and their placement but so far i'm pretty happy with the results, although having 20 PAR38's makes it really hard to take quality pictures

[adambrum]

Just read this thread from start to finish,

 

It looks like leds have come a long way in a short time, i built a led unit about a year ago and was never quite happy with the colour and now have t5s but it seems the colour issues may have been partially solved.

 

So it seem mixing nw,rb and cb in varying combination could be the key but one thing i have not seen is a suggested layout of the leds. How close to each other should they be.

 

Foe example the ratio of say 12 nw,6 rb,6 cb what would be the best layout to avoid colour banding.

[Hans Dorn]

Just alternate the blues and whites, while also alternating the RB and CB within the blues.

 

 

I have one strip of blue and one strip of white over my pico. I put the blues in the back, giving me a lightly bluish background. This works pretty well, think color perspective.

 

When I switch the blues to the front, the tank looks weird.

[adambrum]

Here is a rough layout and the problem i can see is that cb and rb are spaced quite far away from each other, If we have the spacing 1.5" then each rb or cb is going to be 6" from the last one

[Hans Dorn]

I doubt you'll notice any color banding between the RB and the CB. They should just blend together.

[adambrum]

Might order a few nw and cb and have a play. I did look at the custom 3 up rebels you can order them in any combination, might be an idea

[Hans Dorn]

Just had an idea

 

You could put clusters of 4 LEDs on your heat sink. 2NW, 1RB and 1CW. Spread the clusters evenly.

This should give you the best possible color while sacrificing a bit of overall lighting uniformity.

[dhraakoxr]

Neutral whites will have the biggest impact, with the least overall issues. It will be a pretty straight forward swap with the cool whites without much adjustment in other areas. I would avoid green LEDs though. Much like red, they can saturate really quickly, and should always be run on a seperate dimmable circuit to adjust to the desired levels. If you are really looking for cyan (which will offer much better results than green), then go with Luxeon Rebels. Considering that you are running cool blue already, I'd skip the cyans for the time being.

 

Sounds good I'll go with the 2XNWs. I do have a spare 750mA buck puck but I was kind of wanting to wait for TV to use that one. No real reliable ETA on those is there?

[evilc66]

We haven't seen the shipping confirmation from the manufacturer yet, but still anticipate early November.

[dhraakoxr]

We haven't seen the shipping confirmation from the manufacturer yet, but still anticipate early November.

 

K I'll just hold off then. By we you mean nanocustoms? Will I be able to order the TVs and the NWs through you?

[evilc66]

I work for Nanocustoms/Nanotuners. You will only be able to buy through the Nanotuners site, or by phone.

[dhraakoxr]

I work for Nanocustoms/Nanotuners. You will only be able to buy through the Nanotuners site, or by phone.

 

Cool thanks

[blasterman]

Something else I tried tonight, even though I expected bad results. I combined a neutral and a cool-blue (470nm), and the results were *terrible*. Like dumping lysterine and windex 1:1 in your tank.

 

Also, if you find your tank a bit too on the purple side when using neutrals and RBs it can be fixed by turning up your neutrals a bit.

[jfarabaugh]

As for my own testing, I set up something over my tank, and I see some good improvements. I'm running 3 NW, 1 CW, 3 RB, 1 CB, and 1TV (all running at 500mA, fixed, with 40 degree optics). Color seems pretty balanced, and a little crisper white than with the 12K PAR38 that I replaced it with. I'm going to try and get some comparison pictures tonight after I get my water change sorted (it's in desperate need).

 

Evil,

Did you get a chance to snap some pics?

[pumarjr]

i think under my new lighting, the acans in my tank, especially two of them are showing colors now that absolutely were not there before I changed the setup., not just that when the blues are on they glow, but the center of one of my cans is now like a fluorescent green, very, very beautiful and the same with one of my red acans, now the center is showing a blood red, color, very bright. Now, can the addition of the NW's and CB's that I added to the tank, could they have changed the tank to where my corals would actually thrive more considering there is more spectrum for them? or are the new colors appearing, just a coincidence and not related to the new lighting?

[fishfanatic88]

i will be ordering my leds for my aquapod retro soon and now would be perfect time to figure out this color issue. i will have 24 in a 6x4 layout what would be a good number to get of each

3cw

9nw

8rb

3cb

1 tv

????

[pumarjr]

How about 8cw and 4 nw? That's what I'd go with. The rest look ok. Also make sure that all of the LEDs are dimmiable, one dimmer for every color.

[adambrum]

What are peoples thoughts on powering the leds at say 350ma with tighter optics but using more of them, should help blending the different colours together.

 

Also using a driver like this trinity 12 should give loads of control.

[Hans Dorn]

If you want to drop the extra cash, running your LEDs at low current has some benefits. They're running cooler and more efficient this way.

Not sure if you need tighter optics, I think not...

 

That's a sweet driver. What does the price tag say?